How can I reuse or recycle an old plastic dustbin?

It is true! We’ve actually got two old bins in our garden – one pre-dating my move here that’s filled with soil and has herbs and ivy growing out of it (the latter pretty much hides the fact it’s a bin) while the other one (our pre-wheelie bin bin) is used for compost. It’s not as good as our proper compost bin – because there is no easy way to get the soil out again – but I consider it a long term overflow thing, to stop the other compost bin being filled up with things that take ages to rot. Before that, when we actually did DIY stuff on the house, it was used to hold bags of sand and cement because it was reasonably water tight.

When it breaks a bit more and is no longer remotely watertight, put some extra holes in it and use it to make leaf mould.

Just add fallen leaves in autumn, stir them up maybe every 6 months (tip them out, mix them up and throw them back in), and in 2 years you’ll have really nice crumbly goodness, especially useful for heavy clay soils and for growing onions.

Oak and pine leaves take longer to break down, and really enthusiastic gardeners add urine occasionally to help it break down better/faster…

I live in the country and we don’t have curbside recycling so I have to carry my recyclables to the center myself. I’d clean it and use it for a recycle bin. Some of these black containers are recyclable, did you check the bottom for the number?